The boundary issues of the St. Croix River came out of the
Treaty of Paris that was signed in 1783. The geography of the river was not charted clearly until the
Jay Treaty (1794), which provided provisions for surveying the boundary. The boundary between Maine and New Brunswick north of the headwaters of the Saint Croix took another four decades to establish. Following the
War of 1812 there was a push to settle this disputed territory north of the St. Croix on the St. John watershed and it remained in dispute until 1842. During this conflict Maine,
Massachusetts and New Brunswick continued to issue some lumbering permits to the disputed territory. With or without a permit, lumbermen were in a race to cut the best timber from the land while it was under dispute. Although it was illegal to cut trees with no permit, the
Saint John River enabled this activity because it increased business at the local mills, shipyards and timber ponds in New Brunswick so the officials were slow to halt the ongoing illegal activity. During this time, the lumbermen were very serious and competitive about the trees. Whoever got to the best trees first claimed them.
Dynamite was used as a tool of
sabotage to blow up some of the
log booms that were strung across the river to catch the recently cut trees. It is also known that at times the timber men purposely sorted their logs incorrectly to attempt to confuse local officials charged with regulating timber trade and transportation. Prior to 2001, it was possible for boaters to use campsites on both sides of the river. However, boaters must now stay on the same shore that they entered from, and report their trip to the appropriate border agency. ==Water level monitoring==